<\/p>\n
Dame Julie Andrews (right) with Anna O\u2019Byrne and Charles Edwards as Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Margot Taylor<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cShe understood the role on such a cellular level \u2013 Julie\u2019s in the DNA of My Fair Lady<\/em>,\u201d explains O\u2019Byrne. The process of becoming Eliza Doolittle was as much a process of learning to become Andrews: \u201cYou can\u2019t do [the role] and not pay homage to her.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not to say that Andrews was a prescriptive director \u2013 meticulous, yes, and sure of what she wanted, but also willing to take a step back and let O\u2019Byrne find her own way. \u201cShe never, ever told me how to sing, but she did tell me how to speak when I was singing,\u201d she says. \u201cShe taught me how to use my voice to its best ability.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Byrne\u2019s connection with Andrews seems somewhat fated. Her earliest memory of falling in love with musical theatre was watching The Sound of Music<\/em> on television as a girl. In high school, she appeared in an amateur production of My Fair Lady<\/em> \u2013 though it was her sister who performed the lead role. At the time, O\u2019Byrne was more concerned with music. \u201cShe played Eliza and I played violin in the pit,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI used to run lines with her and I remember hearing her above me, as I played.\u201d<\/p>\n Years later, it was her sister who encouraged her to audition for My Fair Lady<\/em>, by which point O\u2019Byrne had already made her name as a singer, while her sister had gone into law: \u201cShe\u2019s a barrister now; she\u2019s got nothing to do with the performing arts in a professional sense,\u201d says O\u2019Byrne. \u201cFar too wise for a life on the wicked stage!\u201d<\/p>\n Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in a scene from the Broadway musical, My Fair Lady.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP Laserphoto<\/cite><\/p>\n For O\u2019Byrne though, the stage was where she found herself. It\u2019s this process of discovery and self-reflection that forms the heart of her one-woman show, Becoming Eliza<\/em>. Its genesis came from the My Fair Lady<\/em> rehearsal room and a suggestion from veteran actor Robyn Nevin.<\/p>\n \u201cShe turned to me in a quiet moment and said, \u2018Anna, are you writing this down?\u2019\u201d recalls O\u2019Byrne. \u201cNothing was happening at that moment, but I knew exactly what she meant \u2013 that I needed to be documenting this process for myself, for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Byrne began writing down her experiences: about working with Andrews, about inhabiting the character of Eliza, about her life as a performer. After My Fair Lady<\/em> finished, she returned home and spent an intensive period getting everything down on paper.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I was writing, songs were coming to me that helped tell the story,\u201d says O\u2019Byrne. \u201cNot just songs from the show, but Julie\u2019s songs.\u201d O\u2019Byrne recruited a small creative team and together they worked the raw material into \u201csomething stage-shaped\u201d.<\/p>\n Anna O\u2019Byrne tells the story of how she learned to inhabit the role of Eliza Doolittle in her one-woman show, Becoming Eliza.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n The result is a production that O\u2019Byrne hopes will \u201clift the curtain\u201d on the thespian life \u2013 \u201cto tell the story of the good times and the hard times and the challenging times\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a show about showbiz, a performance about the art of performing. There are jokes \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s funny because Julie herself is funny, I couldn\u2019t not acknowledge that\u201d \u2013 and of course, there are songs, drawn from every corner of Andrews\u2019 back catalogue, and performed in O\u2019Byrne\u2019s sublime soprano.<\/p>\n At its heart, it\u2019s a tribute to the character that links O\u2019Byrne and Andrews together.<\/p>\n \u201cEliza is the character who changed me the most, of any character I\u2019ve played,\u201d she says. \u201cShe taught me how to be more of a feminist. She taught me how to stick up for myself and to speak my mind. This show is the perfect example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n